Cure Alzheimer's Fund Cure Alzheimer's Fund

Charles L. Greenblatt, M.D.

Professor Emeritus, Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Israel, Faculty of Medicine

I did my undergraduate studies at Harvard and my medical training at the University of Pennsylvania. My internship was in Cooperstown, New York, then considered an “experiment in rural medicine”. During my obligatory national service, I was assigned to the National Institutes of Health (NIH) as a U.S. Public Health Service Officer, where I remained for 12 years. I began in molecular spectroscopy, but when NIH sent me to El Salvador for two years to help modernize a medical school, I found a serious area of interest in tropical medicine, which continued for thirty years. On emigrating to Israel, most of my work was in leishmaniasis. My background in Cooperstown and El Salvador was my calling to be Director of Israel’s only School of Public Health and be Chair of the planning committee for the new community-oriented School of Medicine in Beersheva. However, when one day I was asked if it was possible to retrieve DNA from a mummy, I opened a new field, the “ancient DNA” of pathogens. The organisms which tempted us most were the Mycobacteria, M. tuberculosis and M. lepra. From TB, the disease, it was a short hop to BCG for its prevention. As I learned more, it was apparent that this very old vaccination had non-specific effects. In the case of this proposal, it is the prevention of Alzheimer’s Disease.

 

Related Research:

Understanding the Mechanism Underlying Vaccination for Alzheimer’s Disease Charles L. Greenblatt Benjamin Y. Klein Ofer N. Gofrit 2022-02-14

Funded Research

These projects were made possible from Cure Alzheimer's Fund support.

Project Description Researchers Funding
Understanding the Mechanism Underlying Vaccination for Alzheimer’s Disease 2021, 2023

$345,230

Selected Publications

These published papers resulted from Cure Alzheimer’s Fund support.

Klein, B. Y., Ben-David, I., Gofrit, O. N. & Greenblatt, C. L. Repurposing peripheral immunocytesof Bacillus Calmette Guerin-vaccinated melanoma patients to reveal preventive Alzheimer’s disease mechanisms, possibly via the unfolded protein response, Journal of Alzheimer's Disease Reports, February 10, 2025, Read More

Greenblatt, C. L., Bercovier, H., Klein, B. Y., & Gofrit, O. N. Intravesical Bacille Calmette-Guerin (BCG) Vaccine Affects Cognition, Journal of Alzheimer's Disease, July 30, 2024, Read More

Klein, B. Y., Greenblatt, C. L., Gofrit, O. N., & Bercovier, H. Bacillus Calmette–Guérin in Immuno-Regulation of Alzheimer’s Disease, Frontiers in Aging Neuroscience, June 27, 2022, Read More

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